Racial Justice BK

Taking action to combat the issues that result from systemic and institutional racism.

Mission

Racial Justice BK creates opportunities for neighbors to share, work and grow. Our focus is taking action to combat the issues that result from systemic and institutional racism. Those issues continue to exist in our borough, our city, and beyond. Racism injures and poisons. We seek both healing and remedy.

As a working group of Get Organized BK (GOBK), we embrace the entire borough of Brooklyn in all its rich diversity. We are multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, of multiple faiths, genders, orientations and varied lived experiences.

We also recognize that institutional racism has been a blight on the American experiment since the country’s inception. The last few years have caused many of us to realize just how far we need to go to meet our most basic aspirations of “liberty and justice for all.” From police violence and mass incarceration to the overt unmasking of ever-present white supremacy, from brutal public policy on the macro level to stinging microaggressions on the personal level, racism is a daily reality that harms all of us.

The work of dismantling racism seems more critical than ever. We show up to conduct this hard work together, across lines of difference, while also making time to express joy in the interpersonal relationships we are forming.

We invite everyone who is open to creative change to participate in racial justice work with us. Racial Justice BK meets at least twice per month. Our “Living Room Group” meets once per month, in the home of one of our members. The Living Room Group seeks to create a space for reflection, analysis, and personal storytelling. Participants in the group recognize that racism manifests as an institutional phenomenon … but we also understand that race and racism affect each of us in deeply personal ways. Members of the Living Room Group come together to share those personal experiences, and to hear how racism has had an impact on the lives of our friends and neighbors.

Our business meeting focuses on taking direct action, in our borough, to combat institutional racism. In the past year we have organized responses to hate crimes, held a town hall to discuss building Black political power in Brooklyn, and hosted a series of excursions to film screenings and art installations. Whenever possible, we seek to create partnerships with other organizations doing the hard work of dismantling racism; those partners have included Children of Promise, the Movement for Black Lives, the Brooklyn Public Library, the Close Rikers campaign, the Raise the Age Coalition, and the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture.